Versión de HTML Básico
Can a Christian Go to War?
499
wants from a Christian? Certainly all would agree that this is not a correct
application of that part of the passage. Likewise, we should recognize by
analogy that ruling out any self-defense is not an appropriate application of
the other part of the passage. And Jesus did not intend it to be. He wants to
drive home a principle, realizing that it is best communicated in starkness
and absoluteness. Both he and the Apostle Paul do not seem to have felt con
strained always to apply this teaching literally. Jesus did not offer the other
cheek when struck but rather challenged his being struck—“Why do you
smite me?” (John 18:23). Paul responded similarly in Acts 23:3: “God shall
smite you, you whited wall: and you sit to judge me according to the law, and
command me to be smitten contrary to the law?” His challenge is based on
the law itself. The apology that seems to follow later is to deny not the chal
lenge but the sharpness with which he addressed the one in authority.
Our Lord’s teaching does indicate that Christians should bear verbal
abuse and even physical abuse at times as Christians. But its correlation with
the foregoing passages, especially Romans 12:18, indicates that they need
not refuse to defend themselves or others. To be very practical: the Christian
boy or girl should take a hit or two on the school playground in Christian
grace, meekness, gentleness, love, and forgiveness, without feeling the
necessity of avenging himself. But when that does not bring peace and ces
sation of the blows, then it becomes no longer possible to live at peace with
that attacker, and the Christian may defend himself or herself if aid from an
authority figure to stop the fight is not available. The same applies to the
adult Christian when his physical life or that of others is endangered. And
no less than David, a man after God’s own heart, the Christian may even kill
to defend himself or others.
What the Christian may do as an individual, he may do also as part of a
nation, which God describes as bearing a sword and using it (Rom. 13).
This is not the end of the matter. Would that it were so simple! There is
another aspect of the question. Paul presents the “normal” situation. But
sometimes the state misuses its power and authority. Sometimes it uses the
sword against good. The book of Revelation pictures civil government cor
rupt and against the true Church. Peter and the apostles had to face the
authorities in Jerusalem who imprisoned them, beat them, and demanded
that they stop preaching Jesus. They refused, claiming that they must obey
God rather than men (Acts 4 :19ff.; 5:29, 40-42). They did not protest about
this or that personal right, but they did disobey when the choice was to obey
God or the state. This did not become a misused fetish for the disciples, but
something that they stood for when this supreme issue was at stake. The
example reminds us that our obedience to the state is relative, our obedience
to God, absolute. We must not absolutize patriotism or the motto “My
country—right or wrong.” To do so is to demand that Christians . . . must
fight . . . no matter what the situation may be.